Partnering is 45% of ASG’s top-line revenue. The company achieved this by finding a quality group of high-value partners who bring in new opportunities and enrich their existing solutions.
In this episode, Wayne Monk, Senior Vice President, Global Alliances and Channel Sales at ASG joins Ecosystem Aces and discusses how the company puts their partnerships in a position to succeed through strategic incentives and their solution development framework.
Wayne shares:
- How ASG structures incentives to influence partner behavior
- How ASG helps partners find unique differentiated capabilities
- The changing landscape of partnerships
Building Effective Incentives For Partners
The most important step in building your partner incentives is to identify exactly how you want your partners to add value. It’s only after deciding which partner behaviors are most beneficial for your company can you make an incentive structure that rewards these actions. For ASG, they believe that partners add value most when they extend the reach of the company, bring in new opportunities, help in the selling process and bring innovation into the company’s solutions. The company creates specific incentives for each of the different partner behaviors, with higher rewards for the actions they believe add the most value.
When it comes to creating a successful partner incentive structure, consistency is key. The biggest partner complaint is that too often companies change their partner benefits and are unable to commit to a structure. In addition, Wayne suggests that understanding your competitors’ partner programs is optimal for creating an incentive structure that is enticing for partners while also not being needlessly excessive.
Finding Differentiated Solutions
The more differentiated a solution is, the more value it has. However, companies often lead their pitch with basic run-of-the-mill capabilities and sometimes are even unaware of their point of difference. ASG makes a concerted effort to help uncover their partners’ differentiated value with their solution development framework program. In these sessions, ASG meets with a partner and works with them to find their unique capabilities. Once the unique solution capabilities are clearly defined, both companies create a joint offering that focuses on and builds a business based on this differentiated value.
This solution development framework program has been a resounding success for ASG. By actively collaborating and co-ideating with their partners in these sessions, ASG ensures partner buy-in, identifies messaging and positioning statements, and builds an entire go-to-market plan around it.
The Evolution of Partnering
Wayne’s best advice to partner leaders is to understand how partnerships are evolving and to evaluate partners based on how they deliver value. The shift from perpetual to consumption-based models has put pressure on partners to drive their own IP and innovation. This is a massive shift and critical for all partner managers to understand and internalize. In addition, partners are becoming more advisory, dynamic, and fluid with their roles. This means that in order to capitalize on partnerships in the new partner environment, you have to be more aware of how and where your partners add value instead of simply considering them as “just another partner”.
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To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about alliances, he can be reached by:
Email: chip@workspan.com
Twitter: @chiprodgers
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chiprodgers
https://ecosystemaces.sounder.fm/
